PCTech Forums

Posted: **Thu Feb 19, 2004 5:02 pm**

Hi!
I'm looking for some advice. I've got a PC that I'm trying to repair. It looks to be a custom built system. It has a 1GB Athlon processor, 1GB of RAM, on board video & networking. There are no cards installed. When you boot the computer, it powers on & then starts beeping (8 beeps, then a pause, then 8 beeps...). I understand this to mean that the video card is bad, but since it has on board video, I'm not sure what my options are. Can I install a new video card & everything will be alright, or since it's on board video will I have to replace the entire motherboard? Unfortunately I don't have a spare video card that I can try, so I would have to go out and purchase one. I don't want to do that if I'm going to have to replace the mother board. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Posted: **Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:42 am**

Who's Bios chip is it,Award,AMI,Phoenix..ect?

Posted: **Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:53 am**

Its either the ram not seated or playing up or its the onboard video thats defective,in which case you could disable it in the bios and borrow a video card and try it.

Posted: **Sat Feb 21, 2004 7:00 pm**

Posted: **Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:52 am**

Everything points to the faulty onboard video .

http://bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm

Posted: **Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:15 am**

Yeah, I kind of figured that the on board video was bad, my question is: What can I do about it? Does it mean that I have to replace the motherboard, or can I just purchase a video card & install it?

Posted: **Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:46 am**

First thing I would do would be to borrow a card and if it works then buy one but dont buy intill you know if it the card or the mobo.You could end up out of pocket.

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Computer won't boot 8 beeps

Computer won't boot 8 beeps